


Speech Sounds

by duh_i_read (duh_i_write)



Category: 221B Baker Towers
Genre: 221B Baker Towers Universe, Cannon Fusion, Character of Color, Fake Meta About Language, Gen, Racebent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-16
Updated: 2012-07-16
Packaged: 2017-11-10 01:44:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/460864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/duh_i_write/pseuds/duh_i_read
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>James learned that the best disguises were people’s expectations.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Speech Sounds

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [You See, But You Do Not Observe](https://archiveofourown.org/works/428754) by [sophistry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophistry/pseuds/sophistry). 



> Also inspired by the ever shifting collective concept that is 221B Baker Towers.

James Moriarty was a whisper, a text message from a burner thrown into the gutter, an ever changing voice. Before, he painstakingly shaped his speech, dragged a whetstone over the syllables until his accent rang crisp and cutting. Not a hint of the council block when he spoke.   
  
He stood out. Accused of   _you-think-you-better-than-us-boy?_   He became suspicious. When the cops came the thugs and the dealers and the crooked dockmen would pointed to the slight boy with the proper accent.   
  
So James learned that the best disguises were people’s expectations; tucked around him based on the cadence of his speech and the cut of his hoodie and the hue of his face.   
  
People were stupid. People were sheep. He took the edges of impressions and folded them like origami, shaping him into what he wanted people to see. Easier over the phone, he added and dropped constants, shorted and stretched vowels to suit his needs. No one suspected. Criminals whispered his name and wondered who Moriarty was.    
  
  He was a knowing whisper cooed in the ear. He was south and north and east and west. He was unknowable. He was no one.


End file.
